PSP Eye-Toy Revealed

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Camera add-on spotted on display in Japan.

By Gerry Block

The Japanese-language site ITmedia recently visited what appears to be a boutique PSP store decked out to promote LocoRoco. Besides an impressive collection of yellow-blob plushies, they snapped a nice shot of a PSP add-on Eye-Toy camera on display. Translation revealed speculation that the camera will be officially shown at the Tokyo Game Show this coming September. Sony representatives were unable to confirm this to be true when contacted today.

The camera itself certainly looks snappy in shining metal, and if the imprint on the base is to be believed, sports a decent 1.3 Mega Pixel resolution. We're hoping the big white plastic base is there for display purposes only, and from the looks of the hole cut for the camera, it probably is. Sony is a believer in Eye-Toy related games thanks to the success of the web-cam attachment on the PlayStation 2 and has already shown Eye-Toy applications on the PlayStation 3.

Beyond the traditional Eye-Toy games that put a player on-screen, the addition of a camera to an intrinsically mobile device like the PSP opens a wide range of possibilities. Games could challenge players to find specific real-world objects or landscapes and physical motion could potentially be tracked via camera movement. Coupled with the forthcoming GPS and mapping programs currently in development (confirmed by Sony representatives today), the PSP could become a geocacher's dream machine. The PSP's WiFi capabilities also allow for the possibility of mobile video-chat, and possible video transmissions to the PlayStation 3.